oursin
\uʁ.sɛ̃\
The verdict
“oursin” is uncommon French (frequency #59,507 among 1,642 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,507
- frequency rank, French
- 1,642
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom d’un genre de zoophytes à coquille calcaire hérissée d’épines mobiles.
Corpus desk
Index FR-oursin · oursin · French
oursin · rank #59,507 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #59,507
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,642
- PHOTO-FINISH osti
Nearest frequency peer: osti (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rangs de longue queue près de « oursin »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- orc
orc
40,498 corpus weight
- orgueilleuse
orgueilleuse
40,497 corpus weight
- ornant
ornant
40,496 corpus weight
- osti
osti
40,495 corpus weight
- oursin
oursin
40,494 corpus weight
- Paimpol
Paimpol
40,491 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « oursin » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | oursin |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \uʁ.sɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #59,507 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « oursin » en français
Rare enough to double-check
oursin is uncommon French at frequency #59,507 among 1,642 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \uʁ.sɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for oursin in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is oursin, spelled O-U-R-S-I-N.
Definition
- 1Nom d’un genre de zoophytes à coquille calcaire hérissée d’épines mobiles.
- 2Ourson, bonnet à poil des anciens grenadiers.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how oursin appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les exemples en sont fréquents dans les régions coralliennes de l'Yonne et des Ardennes, car c'est dans ces argiles qu'on trouve les magnifiques oursins et polypiers coralliens qui ornent toutes les collections: […].
On privilégiera les abords de la Cotinière, sur Oléron, pour les étrilles, les oursins, les bigorneaux et les patelles.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "oursin", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).